Umbrella term

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An umbrella term is a word that refers to a category of things.[1] For example, "binary gender" is an umbrella term that encompasses "man"/"boy" and "woman"/"girl".

Gender umbrella terms

There are three major umbrella terms for people who are not cisgender.

  • Transgender is probably the most well-known term. It refers to a person who does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.
  • Nonbinary (also non-binary) refers to a person who does not or does not always identify with a binary gender.
  • Genderqueer refers to a person "whose gender identity is neither man nor woman, is between or beyond genders, or is some combination of genders"[2].

Although a person may technically belong to one or more of these categories, they may not describe themselves using all of them. "Transgender" can pose problems for self-identification because it is often used as a synonym for transsexual.

Sources

  1. User Ankit88. "Definition of Umbrella term". Collins Dictionary Online. 17 March 2013. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/8855/Umbrella+term
  2. Genderqueer. "Definition of Terms". UC Berkeley Centers for Educational Justice and Community Engagement. http://ejce.berkeley.edu/geneq/resources/lgbtq-resources/definition-terms